APRIL 2, 2020 CALIFORNIA 7502B Florence Ave, Downey,OWLING CA 90240 • Website: CaliforniaBowlingNews.com • Email: [email protected] N • Office:EWS (562) 807-3600 Fax: (562) 807-2288 Professional Bowlers “Carry On” Despite Coronavirus Fears On March 12, 2020, most of the sports world came to a grinding halt when both the National Basketball Association (NBA) and Major League Baseball (MLB) announced cancellation of their games “until further notice.” Then on March 15, 2020, the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) not only elected to move forward with the televised finals of the PBA World Champion- ship from Las Vegas, but they added a cool $100,000 to the televised finals purse, making the first place prize $150,000! by Dave Williams LAS VEGAS – Jason Colie Edison, CEO of Belmonte, the bowling the PBA, has since placed phenom from Australia, all tournament activities on was the victor over fellow hiatus until early April, fol- two-handed kegler An- lowing a plea by President thony Simonsen of Little Trump and many state and Elm, Texas, by the final local municipalities, in an score of 213-190. Simon- effort to avoid the spread of sen received $70,000 for COVID-19 (COrona VIrus his second-place finish. In Disease - 2019). However, the battle for the best of the in the process of going for- “regular” one handed bowl- ward with the World Cham- ers, E.J. Tackett of Bluffton, pionship last weekend, the Ind., placed third for a gen- question of a bowling fa- erous prize of $40,000, fol- cility as a venue for future lowed by Francois Lavoie television events has once of Canada ($30,000) and again surfaced. Chris Via of Springfield, There was no live crowd Ohio ($20,000). at the Las Vegas event - While bowling has only family, friends and sometimes been ridiculed tournament officials were for their lack of sports sta- permitted into the event diums, or even facilities at the South Point Bowl- with arena style seating, ing Plaza in Las Vegas. such as Thunderbowl in Frank Esposito, long time suburban Detroit; the lack TV Coordinator for the Jason Belmonte - Photo Courtesy PBA of those confining areas has PBA and ABC-TV, once two cameras!” The years of Championship Bowling that was atop the bowling signature bowling chains. suddenly become desirable told me that, “Bowling is that Esposito spent as pro- called “Top Star Bowling,” world of announcers. In One of my favorite promo- in the world of sports, fol- the perfect sport for televi- prietor of the famous Para- shown every Sunday at fact, you can still watch him tions from my formative lowing the announcement sion, because it is in a con- mus Bowl in New Jersey Noon, with one of the most on the very first telecasts of years, the Youth Pick-Your- of the Coronavirus pan- trolled space and requires made him an expert on the famous of all the bowling the Professional Bowlers Pro, comes to mind… but demic in the United States. very little set up, and only subject, as he hosted many announcers, Jack Buck, Association on You Tube, the prospects are innumer- “made for television” pro- who went on to star in when he served a dual role able. grams, including “Make both football and baseball with the man that went on Add to that the relatively That Spare,” and the very broadcasting. to become the most famous inexpensive costs associ- first televised PBA event, It was Jack Buck, father of all bowling broadcast- ated with coordinating such the 1961 PBA Invitational. of popular play-by-play ers, Chris Schenkel of ABC a program, which could be Could this be the be- announcer Joe Buck, that Sports. filmed in a weekend and ginning of the possible re- was behind the microphone The possibilities of a then spread out over an makes of “Jackpot Bowl- when Kirk Gibson of the packaged bowling broad- entire season, and you can ing,” or the previously Los Angeles Dodgers hit cast are endless. It could begin to see why Frank Es- mentioned “Make That the famous home run in not only spawn the likes posito called bowling a per- Spare,” or even the popular the 1988 World Series that of a “Jackpot Bowling” or fect environment for televi- “Pin Point Bowling” of the caused the elder Buck to “Make That Spare” on net- sion. Who needs a crowd 1970’s and 80’s? One of my spontaneously exclaim, “I work television once again, and worries about social favorites when I was grow- don’t believe what I just but also provide several lo- distancing when you have ABC-TV BOWLING BRAINTRUST ing up in the San Francisco saw!” But in bowling’s cal ties in promotions with bowling, the quintessential (l-r) Chris Schenkel, Bud Fischer, Frank Esposito & Billy Bay Area, was a spinoff heyday, it was Jack Buck all of the various Bowlero sport? Carry on! Welu. PHOTO COURTESY PBA, LLC ENJOY PBA BOWLING ACTION IN YOUR LIVING ROOM PBA competition may for mobile devices – or Store. Millions of users ing players multi-player be suspended at the mo- the new PBA Pro Bowling currently enjoy the chal- and tournament options. ment, but you can still en- game for consoles and mo- lenges of bowling in a va- PBA Pro Bowling is of- joy the spirit of competi- bile devices. riety of tournaments, mak- fered for XBoxOne, PS4, tion in the comfort of your Concrete Software’s ing equipment choices and Nintendo Switch and Steam living room by playing one PBA Bowling Challenge competing in a wide range platforms for $19.99. of the most popular mobile for mobile devices can be of venues. device games in the world downloaded at no cost at PBA Pro Bowling is a To learn more, visit: – PBA Bowling Challenge Google Play or the App newer virtual game, offer- http://probowling.com/. LOUSY BOWLER TOURNAMENT $20 Per Bowler PAGE 2 Lousy Bowler T-shirt included! CALIFORNIABOWLINGNEWS.COM APRIL 2, 2020 UNITED THE BOWLING WORLD WILL BEAT COVID-19 by Jonathan Garza SUNDAY, MARCH 8 On Tuesday, March 17, the bowling world changed for many people, as many bowling centers throughout the United States shut down in response to the recommendation of health departments reacting to the outbreak of COVID-19, aka FOR INFORMATION CONTACT: the coronavirus. RIVERSIDE LANES AT 1-888-590-2695 If you would have told me a month ago that Tom Brady was going to leave the New England Patriots and sign with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, I might have laughed at you. But if you would have told me that just a few weeks later there would be no bowling, that Disneyland and Las Vegas would be completely shut down, I might have punched you in the face. But then it happened, and the world has seemingly shut down. In some places (Germany) it is only permitted to LOUSY BOWLER have gatherings of two people or fewer. Locally the ruling is about 10, with a rule of social distancing of six feet away TOURNAMENT from person to person. Fine. To borrow a line from my fifth-grade teacher, “improvise, adapt, overcome.” 12th LAUGHLIN I’ve seen friends on social media turn to the PBA Pro Bowling games (available on Android, iOS, Playstation 4, Xbox $20 Per Bowler One and Nintendo Switch). That game is a lot of fun! I spent countless hours playing it on my Android device, slinging Lousy Bowler T-shirt included! over 600 300 games and 17 900 series at last count. What can I say? I really love bowling! If this lasts long enough, I BLAST might challenge a friend or two to a potgame online. Brackets anybody? SUNDAY, MARCH 8 Another cool concept I saw on Facebook was the QuaranTeen Open, a Wii Sports Bowling tournament for kids at FOR INFORMATION CONTACT: RIVERSIDE LANES AT 1-888-590-2695 home who are missing their life on the lanes. I played that once upon a time too, shooting eight 300 games. I do remem- Senior No–Tap Doubles ber these things because I really love to bowl, both in person and in video games. In case you’re wondering I have one actual 300 in real life. It was about five years ago, and I feel like the centers need to open up soon so I could keep training 12thHandicap LAUGHLIN Event! hard in an effort to shoot another one. Last week I was talking to a friend of mine, and fellow Brunswick Invitational bowler, Tony Winn. I told him that BLAST we were going to wind up learning just how much we take bowling for granted. Our league was cancelled last Monday night, and will not floor tonight and possibly next week either, depending on what happens going forward. Then I can’t Senior No–Tap Doubles help but think about the bowlers who are elated that they’re bowling unopposed and get to go home early, or the ones SUNDAY,Handicap AUGUST Event! 16 who won’t get a sub for their absent bowlers to speed up the bowling process. Do you think they miss bowling? Of FOR INFORMATION CONTACT: course, they do! What will they have to complain about now? SUNDAY,JOYCE DALTON–JENSEN AUGUST (619) 251–9660 16 So, life’s orders now state that many people cannot work, or go bowling, or to the gym, or to the movie theater, or FOR INFORMATION CONTACT: even go out to eat! So, what can we do? Can we go visit our friends? Heck, some people decided to violate the order that JOYCE DALTON–JENSENwww.Laughlinblast.com (619) 251–9660 www.Laughlinblast.com says you cannot and wound up paying the price for it.